powerline recommendation

hornetstinger · 12 Jun 2018 at 14:28

Looking into getting a power line system as it involves no cabling around the house.

Living room will be getting fibre router so that will be master powerline adapter. Upstairs has main room with computers. With network switch. Other room has squeezebox.

So I will only need one port powerline. Is it ok to plug powerline into switch which has multiple devicesor does one port require one device.

Not sure if I will need a WiFi repeater for upstairs. House is 1900.

Kol · 12 Jun 2018 at 15:07

You'll get varying views on here, most negative towards powerline. In my experience, I have the PA9020P kit. My router is in the lounge and I have one of these there, feeding the other at the back of the house. Our wiring is pretty sketchy, it's a 1800 property, probably last rewired in the 80s.

The powerline at the back of the house goes into a switch which then feeds my devices. I get an average of ~200mbit on this kit, but a previous older set (rated 500mbit) set I had wouldn't get more than ~30mbit. So it does depend on both the powerline adaptors and your wiring.

For me, 200mbit is sufficient, I don't do any internal transfers between the rooms, only browsing.

hornetstinger · 13 Jun 2018 at 12:10

If that's the case I'll go for cheapest triple unit kit, tplink have one for about £45.

Kol · 13 Jun 2018 at 12:14

That though is the problem. Cheaper generally means lesser performance. I had a cheapo set from TP Link and they were woeful but their PA9020p kit works great.

Perhaps buy a set you can test and if not adequate return and then invest an amount that will give you reliable/decent performance.

hornetstinger · 13 Jun 2018 at 12:25

There's TP-Link TL-PA8010PKIT V2 not bad at £55 for two units but I'll need another one and not sure what is the matching adapter.

bremen1874 · 13 Jun 2018 at 15:36

The matching adapter would be a TL-PA8010P but I'm not sure they sell them individually.

Individual adapters have always been rare and have been expensive compared to buying them in pairs.

Do you need three? Couldn't you run a cable from your switch to the other room?

hornetstinger · 18 Jun 2018 at 13:22

Don't fancy ripping up carpet, carpet strips or laying cable along skirting or cutting wedge on door frame.

If I get a one port powerline, then router plugs into that, and will have three ports left over for devices downstairs where router is for squeezebox, media player. Then upstairs a single adapter into a 24 port gigabit switch, and other room will have one for squeezebox. So I guess need to buy two PA8010PKIT and have one unused. WiFi in the house if signal drops outside router room is not required, although guess rather than getting another identical kit, get the one with WiFi adapter in case I do want WiFi upstairs

bremen1874 · 18 Jun 2018 at 13:39

If you're willing to go down the 'refurbished' route those adapters are available as singles and in three packs

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 18 Jun 2018 at 13:50

I recommend not bothering

I've always had problems getting reliable internet upstairs.
Tried repeaters/extenders, and even had hard wired router until the cable & router failed.
Tried powerlines, but unfortunately they didn't work very well in our old house.
Switching to mesh has been the best solution I've tried so far

hornetstinger · 18 Jun 2018 at 14:53

House is old but fuse box is pretty new. Not the old style bakelite box and switches.

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 18 Jun 2018 at 14:57

yeah, our house was rewired maybe 10 years ago, but the powerline adapters I tried were just slow and unreliable. Could have just been the cheap tplink adapters I bought at the time though too.

bledd · 18 Jun 2018 at 19:55

Pyr0m@nI@]{ said:
even had hard wired router until the cable & router failed.

How did the cable fail?

Hardwired > all

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 18 Jun 2018 at 21:35

Not sure how it happened, but it just stopped working. Nothing worked when plugged in and getting to the cable would end up costing more than a couple of mesh routers.
I tried going the cheap route with powerline first, but in this house it just wasn't any good.

bledd · 18 Jun 2018 at 21:38

£2 cable tester is ~~free~~ cheap

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 18 Jun 2018 at 23:06

I don't think that will help much.
I already know the cable is broken.
The issue is ripping out the old one and putting in a new, the damage it would cause, the cost of repairs and the time spent.
I bought 2 mesh routers and job done. Full speed internet upstairs

hornetstinger · 19 Jun 2018 at 12:56

Go for two PA8010PKIT then?

Kol · 19 Jun 2018 at 13:04

What's the price difference between that an the 9020pkit? Mine works perfectly (just remote logged into my mac which is in the back bedroom, running through the powerline, ran a speed test and getting 220mbit sustained - which is my max line speed).

hornetstinger · 19 Jun 2018 at 13:20

8010 £55, 9020 £90

Quartz · 19 Jun 2018 at 13:33

hornetstinger said:
Looking into getting a power line system as it involves no cabling around the house.

Reconsider. Can you not run cables around the outside of the house? To stop the cable being unsightly when you go around doors etc, use this 8mmx12mm cable trunking.

hornetstinger · 19 Jun 2018 at 14:11

Hmm might go with cat5e cable. 50m and 15m cables about £20 for both. Compared to £100 for power lines.

50m should be ok for downstairs to upstairs and 15m from one room to the next, but I'll use existing cat5e and measure out. I'll need to go around room boundary to living room door across under cable strip out of room up stairs around landing boundary thorough door around room to desk. Then from desk around room boundary across door strip out of room along landing boundary into next room along room boundary till squeeze box